Will skin grow back?

[Nana2KJS]

Gracie, one of my year-old BO's, was badly injured couple weeks ago. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=309449

We have been treating her with advice and remedies from our homeopath, and she seems to be doing well. She is more vocal now, and is laying sporadically again, but we do have a couple questions.

Her wounds are dry and don't seem to be infected, but the skin is damaged beyond nasty. A piece of the scabby skin has come lose above her tail. The "meat" underneath looks healthy. Should these pieces of skin be removed as they come loose? Should we try to remove the remaining scabby areas? Will new skin grow over the exposed sections?

She is protected and safe in my mom's greenhouse, but she does seem to be getting a bit lonely. We're not sure about bringing her back, yet, as it is still very cool in the evenings.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[BarnsB]

I would remove any obvious crusty detrious & dead skin & apply neosporin liberally to any raw & exposed areas. You can cut away flaps of dead skin & pull away scabs. In addition to the antibacterial properties of Neo the greasy lotion seems to provide a good barrier for skin to regenerate faster (think cracked lips). Skin will eventually grow back & probably feathers too. This can take a while & you want to make sure that she isn't reinjured by your other hens who will probably peck at any exposed areas...Chickens do that.

 

[Nana2KJS]

Thanks, BarnsB for your reply.

Now, does anyone have any suggestions as to the best way to remove the skin? My mom is pretty tough, but that even gave her the willies. May be time to bring in the big guns (vet) if we can't manage it ourselves.

 

[Bec]

That wound looked similar to one we had here. When the skin dried up and got crusty (dead skin) I used nail clippers to clip it off. I don't have any pictures of that, but here are some of the wound. It is amazing how they some how make it through such horrible attacks, mine was attacked my a dog....my dog

For the most part, we left it alone and didn't clip much at all. We did the same as you, she stayed in the kitchen for a while then when she was string enough, she got to go out in her own special sopt with a saddle on with extra padding

After I cleaned her up

Feeling much better here.

 

[BarnsB]

1) If the skin is dead and hanging like a flap away from your hens body then you can just take a pair of cutical scisors and snip it off.
2) If the skin is scabby & covering up healthier tissue underneath then I would advise gooping on as much neosporin as you can. This will soften the scabbies & you can pull them away with tweezers a few hours later or the next day.
3) I would cover your hens head with a sock or towel while you work on her; that way she will lie quietly and you can be more precise. She may bleed a little don't worry.
4) If you have a large flap of skin that is still alive it will probably eventually dry up and can be cut away. If it is still alive (ie. you have blood flow and it is pink) then I would probably advise leaving it alone.
5) If you felt that a live flap of skin had to be cut away because it was doing more harm than good (pulling a wound open or trapping too much yucky stuff) then you will need a razor blade alcohol & styptic powder. Put the razor in alcohol to disinfect it first then slice away the excess skin & dab bleeding skin edges with styptic powder. You can get styptic powder at most pet stores...it is what people use to stop dogs toenails from bleeding if they are cut too short.

 

[emvickrey]

I had a hen that somehow got the skin ripped from one side of her neck to the other and it covered the entire area of the base of her head to her shoulders. After cleaning it and clipping away feathers to keep them out of the wound I globbed neosporin all over the raw neck and the inside part of the flap of skin and I pulled it over her next the best I could. I was advised to sew it on to streach it more but I just don't do needles when they have to puncture the skin. I kept neosporin globbed on it and after a week it was well on it's way to being healed. It was still red but the skin had grown back and new skin was growing in the places the flap didn't reach. She never did grow feathers where the new skin grew but where she already had feathers growed over the bald spot and sne was never bothered by the other chickens. I kept her separate until her bald spot was hidden.

I hope this helps. Oh and don't use the neosporin that contains pain reliever.

 

[pinkkitty]

i swear by spray bactine, it seems to really penetrate and has been a part of some major chicken rescues. also great is new skin, a spray on liqid bandage, or if you can only find the paint on kind use that. it gives them a clean protective layer of "skin" while their fragile skin repairs. when skin is torn i use crazy glue, if it is missing i use new skin or liquid bandage.

 

[corrschickfarm]

That wound looked similar to one we had here. When the skin dried up and got crusty (dead skin) I used nail clippers to clip it off.  I don't have any pictures of that, but here are some of the wound. It is amazing how they some how make it through such horrible attacks, mine was attacked my a dog....my dog /img/smilies/somad.gif For the most part, we left it alone and didn't clip much at all. We did the same as you, she stayed in the kitchen for a while then when she was string enough, she got to go out in her own special sopt with a saddle on with extra padding /img/smilies/smile.png


After I cleaned her up

Feeling much better here.

 

[corrschickfarm]

Did your hen ever grow feathers back where she grew new skin? One of my roosters got attacked by our dog and had his neck muscles exposed he is doing much better 2 days later but I'm concerned about that spot not filling in with feathers especially since we live in the northern part of Minnesota and winter is upon us. Thanks for any help you can provide.